University axes youth work course due to slump in job prospects

The decision by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) means it will not be taking any new entries for its youth and community work degree, a JNC-approved professional youth work qualification.

Janet Batsleer, a researcher at the university who helped develop the course, confirmed that cuts to youth services posts had been a factor in the move.

"The fact that local authority youth services have been culled by government policy is largely what lies behind the difficulty," she said.

"In the past there were [youth work] staff that were fully qualified and recognised. If you abolish those positions and only pay people at casual worker level there is going to be a problem of people getting posts following on from professional qualifications."

She added that all those currently taking the course will be able to complete their studies and that the university is looking to run a new "community education" three-year degree course from September 2018.

Batsleer said this aims to reflect the changing nature of youth and community work and will include youth work and wider community development elements as well as a strong focus on attracting those from a creative background.

She said: "From the university's perspective we need a new offer that is more in line with current trends.

"People at the university are committed to keeping work in this field alive. The issue now is to position the course in the new environment.

"This includes creatives as there is a huge overlap in community and youth work and the creative industries, such as applied theatre practitioners, photographers, digital arts people, as well as games and coding practitioners who are doing a lot of work in community projects."

Latest figures on the number of students being recruited onto professionally validated youth and community programmes showed a slight increase between 2013/14 and 2014/15, however the numbers were still only around half of the 2008 figure of 1,470.

These figures, which appeared in the National Youth Agency's annual monitoring report of youth and community programmes, also showed that the gender gap was increasing, with 75 per cent of 2014/15's intake being female, compared with 65 per cent the previous year.

In January it emerged that London councils had reduced youth services staffing by 39 per cent and axed a total of £22m from their budgets between 2011/12 and 2016/17.

Last August data released by the union Unison found that councils had cut their youth service spending by £387m over the previous six years, leading to the loss of 3,652 youth work jobs.

Gill Millar, chair of NYA's education and training standards committee, said Manchester Metropolitan University's youth work course is one of the longest-established JNC programmes in England and serves a region that supports a significant and diverse range of youth work providers.

"The loss of a professional qualification programme in an area of high need is disappointing and we hope that [the university] will consult with the youth work field locally and nationally before a final decision is made," she said.
 
"Changes to MMU's youth and community degree reflect the broader changes in youth work workforce jobs we have seen over the past couple of years.

"Youth work skills are increasingly applied to a whole range of different roles, and MMU's community-focused degree formalises this development."